[tiana-reynolds Posts: 4 Status: Offline]

Hello all!

I’m writing a collection of YA poetry (not a novel in verse) which I anticipate will be about 80 pieces. I have read that I should include a table of contents in my MS. I know this is a nit-picky question, but would you begin the TOC on the title page as you would the text of a novel/pb, or start it fresh on the following page? Would you include a row of dots between the poem title and page number in the TOC, or would you leave the space between blank? I’ve only self-pubbed poetry collections thus far, so any suggestions on MS formatting are welcome! TIA!

-Tiana

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,068 Status: Offline Language is so cool!]

I think ToCs are usually their own page unless they are very short. And you don't submit the title page, so it's not relevant. You'd submit the manuscript with a cover page, ToC, and then the poems, one to a page unless you anticipate two being on the same page in the published work. The row of dots question probably depends on the publisher. If you have a publisher in mind, look at how they format in their published works and copy that. Collections are hard to sell. Good luck with it.